10/5/08

I just learned that Australian writer John Marsden, perhaps most famous for his "Tomorrow" series, has a new book that is a retelling of Hamlet. Here's a quote from a recent interview with him at The Book Show:

"Australian author John Marsden has created his own version of Hamlet, the ultimate story of revenge and betrayal. But his version is for teenagers. John Marsden's Hamlet is frustrated by sexual desire, the tyranny of the adult world and his own brand of teen angst. He wears black jeans and t-shirts and plays footy with his mates, but it's still set in Denmark and the ghost of his father still haunts him. The cast of characters is the same too; there's his friend Horatio, his love interest Ophelia and her father Polonius. John Marsden's Hamlet starts with his friends asking him whether he believes in ghosts. His response is, 'My bum's getting sore, let's play football.'"

Last year saw Something Rotten, by Alan M. Gratz (and here's an interview with him, at Cynsations)--Hamlet, the heir of an industrial empire, whose father dies in strange circumstances. And this year Oprah has given her nod to The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski, which takes the Hamlet story to 20th century Wisconsin.